Beyond
the SelfThe way we define and delimit
the self is arbitrary. We can place it between our ears
and have it looking out from our eyes, or we can widen it
to include the air we breathe, or at other moments we can
cast its boundaries farther to include the oxygen giving
trees and plankton, our external lungs, and beyond them
the web of life in which they are sustained. --Joanna
Macy, World As Lover, World As Self

There is a story in Zen circles about a man and a horse.
The horse is galloping quickly, and it appears that the man
on the horse is going somewhere important. Another man,
standing alongside the road, shouts, 'Where are you going?"
and the first man replies, I don't know! Ask the horse!"
This
is also our story. We are riding a horse, we don't know where
we are going, and we can't stop. The horse is our habit energy
pulling us along, and we are powerless. We are always running,
and it has become a habit. We struggle all the time, even during
our sleep. We are at war within ourselves, and we can easily
start a war with others.

We have to learn the art of stopping - stopping our thinking, our
habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule
us.
When an emotion rushes through us like a storm, we have no peace.
We turn on the TV and then we turn it off. We pick up a book and
then we put it down. How can we stop this state of agitation? How
can we stop our fear, despair, anger, and craving? We can stop by
practicing mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful smiling,
and
deep looking in order to understand. When we are mindful,
touching
deeply the present moment, the fruits are always understanding,
acceptance, love, and the desire to relieve suffering and bring
joy.

But our habit energies are often stronger than our volition.
We say and do things we don't want to and afterwards
we regret it. We make ourselves and others suffer, and we
bring about a lot of damage. We may vow not to do it again,
but we do it again. Why? Because our habit energies (vashana)
push us.

We need the energy of mindfulness to recognize and be
present with our habit energy in order to stop this course of
destruction. With mindfulness, we have the capacity to recog-
nize the habit energy every time it manifests. "Hello, my
habit energy, I know you are there!" If we just smile
to it, it
will lose much of its strength. Mindfulness is the energy that
allows us to recognize our habit energy and prevent it from
dominating us.

Forgetfulness is the opposite. We drink a cup of tea, but
do not know we are drinking a cup of tea. We sit with the
person we love, but we don't know that she is there. We walk,
but we are not really walking. We are someplace else, think-
ing about the past or the future. The horse of our habit energy
is carrying us along, and we are its captive. We need to
stop our horse and reclaim our liberty. We need to shine the
light of mindfulness on everything we do, so the darkness of
forgetfulness will disappear. The first function of meditation
- shamatha - is to stop.

The second function of shamatha is calming. When we
have a strong emotion, we know it can be dangerous to act,
but we don't have the strength or clarity to refrain. We have
to learn the art of breathing in and out, stopping our
activities,
and calming our emotions. We have to learn to become
solid and stable like an oak tree, and not be blown from side
to side by the storm.

One goal - truth - and one method. What is
that method? I call it meditation, Atisha used to call it
awareness, Buddha used to call it mindfulness. These are
different words for the same quality - the quality of being
attentive, alert, awake.

Atisha is very mathematical; no
great mathematician can be so mathematical as he is. He is moving
step by step. First he says: Don't seek spurious comforts; that
is going astray. Don't escape from your sorrowful state; go into
it. Let this become your one goal: the search for the truth of
your being. He is not talking about any truth that lives
somewhere in the sky, he is not talking about any philosophical
truth. He is talking about the truth that you are; he is talking
about you. He is utterly psychological, he is not talking about
metaphysics.

Then the method... and he goes so
quick, not a single word wasted, not a single word superfluous.
He is so telegraphic; that is the meaning of the word sutra.
Sutra means very telegraphic. There was a great need in those
days when Atisha was writing these sutras - there was a great
need to be very very short, condensed, telegraphic, because books
were not available; people had to remember them. And it is better
to make very very condensed sutras so people can remember. Now
these are only seven points we are discussing, and can be easily
remembered.

One method
will correct all wrong That
method is awareness. There are many illnesses but there is only
one health. The quality of health is one, always the same.
Whether I am healthy or you are healthy, the feel of health is
the same. Diseases are millions, wrongs are many, but the right
key that unlocks all the doors, the master key, is only one. And
rather than cutting the branches, rather than pruning the leaves,
why not cut the very root? There are many people who go on
pruning the leaves or cutting the branches; these people are
known as moralists.

The moral person is a
little-bit-stupid person, stupid in the sense that he thinks that
by cutting the leaves he is going to destroy the tree. He is not
going to destroy the tree this way. You cut one leaf and the tree
will respond with three leaves instead, the foliage will become
thicker. You cut one branch and the tree will pour its sap and
juices into another branch, and the other branch will become
thicker and bigger. This is what happens in your life.

Somebody is against sex; he
represses sex, he cuts that branch. Now the whole energy becomes
anger. You will find stories in Indian scriptures, stories like
the story of Durvasa - a great so-called mahatma who
repressed his sex totally, and then became all anger, just
red-hot anger. It is bound to happen. You cannot destroy any
energy, never. It is not possible in the very nature of things.
Energies can only be transformed, never destroyed. If you close
one outlet, the energy will start flowing from another. If you
close the front door, then from the back door... and from the
back door it is more dangerous, because it makes your life the
life of a hypocrite, it makes your life double. You start living
in a dual way: you say one thing, you do another; you show one
thing, you are another. You become more and more split.

My emphasis is also exactly the
same as Atisha's. You come to me with a thousand and one
problems, but my answer is always the same. If you come with
anger I say be aware of it, if you come with greed I say be aware
of it, if you come with lust I say be aware of it - because
awareness cuts the very root. What is the root? Unawareness is
the root.

One can be angry only if he is
unaware. Try to be angry and aware together and you will find it
impossible. Either you will be aware, then anger will not be
found, or you will be angry and awareness will have disappeared.
Up to now, nobody has been able to manage both together, and I
don't think you can prove the exception. Try it. It is possible
you may think both are happening, but if you minutely watch you
will see: when awareness is there anger is not, when anger is
there awareness is not. Unawareness is the root of all illnesses;
then awareness is the only medicine.

Buddha says, "I am a
physician." And once somebody asked, "You again and
again say you are a physician, but I don't see any medicines
around you. What medicines do you give?" He said, "My
medicine is only one: it is awareness. I prescribe
awareness." And it has not to be brought from the chemist;
you have to change your inner chemistry to bring it. You have to
change your inner chemistry. Right now your inner chemistry
functions in such a way that it produces unawareness,
unconsciousness. It can be changed, it can be deautomatized. How
to do it you will find in the sutras that are to follow.

But remember, one method is enough
to correct all wrong. That method is awareness. And how will you
know that you have attained it? Awareness is something inner, it
is so deep that nobody can see it. Still, if you become aware,
everybody who has a little intelligence, who has eyes to see,
will become aware of it - because as awareness happens at the
inner core, compassion starts radiating, love starts radiating.

Buddha says: Light the candle of
awareness in your heart, and your whole being will radiate
compassion. Compassion is the proof. Unless compassion happens,
remember, you must be deceiving yourself; you must be doing
something else than being aware.

For example, you can try
concentration. Concentration is not awareness, and the person of
concentration will never show compassion. Compassion is not a
consequence of concentration. Concentration means the focusing of
the mind, the narrowing of the mind on only one point. The
concentrated mind becomes a very powerful mind - but remember it
is mind, and very powerful, hence more dangerous than ever.
Concentration is the method of science.

Awareness is totally different; it
is not focusing, it is unfocused alertness. For example, right
now you are listening to me. You can hear in a concentrated way,
you can be focused on me; then you will miss the birds and their
songs, then you will miss this noise on the road. Then you are
not aware, then your mind has become very narrow. Awareness is
not the narrowing of the mind but the disappearance of the mind.
The narrowing of the mind makes the mind more of a mind - hence
the Hindu mind is more of a mind, the Mohammedan mind is more of
a mind, the communist mind is more of a mind, because these are
all narrowing. Somebody is focused on Das Kapital or the
Communist Manifesto, somebody is focused on the Koran or on the
Dhammapada, somebody on the Gita, somebody on The Bible - focused
people. They create narrow minds in the world. They create
conflict, they don't bring compassion.

For thousands of years religions
have existed, but compassion is still a dream. We have not been
able to create a world that knows what love is, friendship is,
brotherhood is. Yes, we talk, and we talk too much about all
these beautiful things. In fact the talk has become nauseating,
it is sickening. It should stop. No more talk of brotherhood and
love and this and that - we have talked for thousands of years
for no purpose.

The reason is that the concentrated
mind becomes narrow, becomes more of a mind. And love is not the
function of the mind, love is the function of no-mind - or call
it heart, which means the same. No-mind and heart are synonymous.

Awareness means to listen to me
unfocused - alert of course, not fallen asleep, but alert to
these birds, their chirping, alert to the wind that passes
through the trees, alert to everything that is happening.
Concentration excludes much, includes little. Awareness excludes
nothing, includes all.

Awareness is a state of no-mind.
You are, yet you are not focused. You are just a mirror
reflecting all, echoing all; see the beauty of it and the silence
and the stillness. Suddenly you are and you are not, and the
miracle starts happening. In this silence you will feel a
compassion, compassion for all suffering beings. It has not to be
practiced either - it comes on its own.

Atisha says: Awareness inside,
compassion on the., outside. Compassion is the outer side of
awareness, the exterior of awareness. Awareness is your
interiority, subjectivity. Compassion is relating with others,
sharing with others.